i am thinking of going this route and am just wondering if anyone around SD area has done it so i can stop by and listen to it. also, do you recommend any shop that would be able to do this with good quality that is lower than 400? thanks in advance guys

Just got mine done today at Warner's Muffler in Oceanside...$300 in three hours...They did a great job (replaced the two perforated pipes in the absorption chamber with solid tubes)...perfect welds and it sounds great!

^ Nice! I found a steal and bought mine for $300 (I didn't want to trade my exhaust or mod it either). It's quiet inside the car but loud outside of the car. While it doesn't have the bass of my old AA system, it also doesn't have the drone in the cabin and blipping the throttle up to 4K RPMs yield identical dB levels outside. I think it's the perfect system if you don't want drone but want an aggressive, throaty note. I think the ACM version would be too loud for me.

BTW, if you guys are in SD, come to our meet this coming Wednesday:

01/16/13 at 7pm in the Kearny Mesa location of Lolitas Taco Shop, off Clairemont Mesa Blvd.